1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a configuration of a lens group used in an image stabilizing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there are digital cameras that include a zoom mechanism for changing photographing magnification by moving a plurality of optical lenses in an optical axis direction.
Such a zoom mechanism employs a cam ring to move in the optical axis direction a plurality of lens holding units that hold the plurality of lenses. Further, the zoom mechanism employs a rotation regulating unit to regulate the lens holding units from moving in a rotational direction. The optical lenses can thus be moved to a designated position by such a configuration.
Furthermore, rapid development of high magnification digital cameras has led to an increase in a number of lens groups and a total extended lens length, so that the size of the cameras has become larger. Moreover, there is a strong demand for thinner cameras, which requires the size of the lens to be thin when retracted in the camera.
The digital camera may be thinned by shortening the length of each lens barrel in the optical axis direction and connecting the lens barrels in a multistage configuration. However, since there are numerous restrictions on arranging a plurality of cams without intersecting, such a configuration is difficult to realize.
Further, gaps between the lenses within one lens group may become wide depending on an optical design of the lenses. As a result, the thickness of the camera increases due to such gaps.
To solve the above-described situations, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-140339 discusses a method for changing, in a lens barrel that extends and retracts by moving a plurality of lens groups, the gaps between the lenses in the lens group held by a barrel frame. As a result, the gap between the lenses in the lens group is reduced, and the total thickness of the camera decreases.
On the other hand, a number of cameras including a correction control function for correcting the image blur caused by a camera shake has been recently developed. The image stabilizing function detects an amount of camera shake using a gyro sensor, and a correction lens is then moved by an assumed correction amount to compensate for camera vibration.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-33975 discusses a mechanical configuration of the image stabilizing function which includes a lens holder configured by mounting the correction lens on balls. The correction lens is rolled on the ball, so that the correction lens can be smoothly moved.
However, the gap between the lenses in the camera shake correction lens discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-33975 may become wide, so that the camera thickness is increased. The technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-140339 may be directly applied to the configuration discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-33975 that includes the image stabilizing apparatus, to decrease the thickness of the camera. In such a case, unnecessary force may be applied to and thus scratch the balls or a ball receiving surface, so that the image stabilizing correction performance may become degraded.